Lenny & Little Nicky: Then & Now

Little Nicky

"I am living the life that I wanted." - Little Nicky

Those were his words to his associate one day in the nineties in Brooklyn, New York. That was then: when he was on the street as a Capo in the Gambino Family, soon to be acting Boss. Fast forward to today: he is 73 years old living in the FCI Loretto with 9 more years inside. It has been a long run for Nicky who was born in the East New York, Brownsville area of Brooklyn in 1940. He and his brother Joseph aka JoJo made their name and money in gambling. JoJo is rumored to be a street craps whiz who made the Gambino craps games profitable. The games lost money until JoJo stepped in and ran them right.




Nicholas became known as Little Nicky because of his diminutive size 5 foot 5 inches tall and weighing a soft 170lbs. But he was no push over. Little Nicky was always in gangster mode, he was gangster 24/7. He was proposed to be made in the late 70's but he told the powers-that-be that he could not do it unless they made Lenny DiMaria because he would not be where he was without Lenny. So they made them both and soon Little Nicky had a vast gambling network in Brooklyn and Queens that included bookmaking, numbers, a horse room and shylock. He became a huge earner for the family and when his Capo Fat Andy went on the lam and joined a biker gang, he and Lenny reported directly to Neil Dellacroce, the legendary underboss of the Gambino Family. This made those in power take notice of what he was doing and the cash he was able to generate.He liked to recruit young guys, guys that he saw some criminal spark inside. So he gathered a good crew of capable guys like Mike Yannotti and he was soon a powerhouse in the family that the higher ups looked to when they needed work done.

Lenny

Leonard "Lenny" DiMaria has been Little Nicky's right-hand man for 30 years. He started off not as a criminal but as a train conductor working on the Long Island Railroad. He soon became a trusted Gambino associate along with Little Nicky. Lenny was the opposite of Little Nicky who was always gangster, Lenny is more gregarious and likeable. When Lenny and Little Nicky were on trial in 1985 with John Gotti, Lenny would stand up and thank each witness for coming to the trial. They were ultimately acquitted of all charges but years later turncoat Sammy Gravano would tell the Feds that he bribed the jury Foreman to secure an acquittal.When Gene Gotti, the drug dealing brother of John Gotti, went away on Heroin dealing charges, Little Nicky and Lenny started running his crew. Lenny was always more well-liked than Little Nicky among the rank and file.They built up their gambling network and soon they had a huge shylock business thriving in New York. Little Nicky sent Lenny and two other Capos down to Florida where they formed the South Florida Crew. They were huge earners and did well until it all came crashing down.
A lot of guys in the Mafia like to claim they have nothing to do with drugs and a lot of the public buys this load of crap. Little Nicky had guys all over the five Boroughs shaking down drug dealers. He used to have them give cash as a Christmas gift or throw it into the kitty for the crew but he knew exactly where the cash was coming from. When dealers who had been ripped off or extorted came to him he would get back their drugs from his guys and get a taste of the cash. He liked to play both sides against each other. One thing he did know was the rules of La Cosa Nostra and he knew how to use them to his advantage. When his guy Mikey Y shot a guy with the Lucchese Family and left him for dead in a Brooklyn parking lot, he had a sitdown with the Lucchese family. It was during that sitdown that he told the Lucchese guys that if they couldn’t get a hold of their guys to call them off, they would be dead. If you were in his crew and he didn't like you, he would still go to bat for you because he didn't want to appear weak or wrong. He would close his social clubs and take a meeting late at night off parkways around New York. He used to drive by his guys’ places and check up on them at night.

Mikey Y

Little Nicky ordered the killing of Lucchese associate Robert Arena because he said Robert had something to do with the killing of one of his crew members. Robert also stole a large amount of marijuana from a dealer associated with his crew and when ordered to give it back he refused. Robert Arena would be gunned down in his car in the Mill Basin area by Mikey Y along with a friend named Tommy Maranga. Nicky would plead guilty to taking part in planning the killing. Nicky became a Capo after John Gotti went away. He was on the ruling panel for awhile and then he was tapped as boss. He finally had made it to where he dreamed of being, but it was not to last. He had befriended a trucking guy named Joey V while locked up, but when Joey V was faced with new drug charges he decided to wear a wire. Nicky was boss for a week. When he gets out he will find that the family has changed and he will be in his 80's, Lenny today is free and completing his parole.

Colombo Family - Mafia Take Down Day (Part I)

Teddy Persico Jr aka "Skinny"

I had taken the trip to Spencer Street many times to see Eddie Garafolo at the Big R truck yard, but this particular day when I pulled into the lot I never reached the trailer that doubled as the office. Standing near a truck cab covered in grease was Teddy Persico Jr, who at the time was street boss of the Colombo Family.  Teddy quickly walked over to my truck and we started talking.  Teddy wanted to know what was going on, what I had going with a Manhattan company that sold phone time.  Teddy was trying to get a handle on how much money his other associates were making from the business.  Teddy Persico Jr had just gotten out of State Prison after 17 years on a drug charge.  Prior to prison, Teddy was a mover and shaker, a soldier who ran his own crew.  His crew specialized in drug dealing and robbing drug dealers. As we talked, he had no idea I was wearing a wire that was going to send him back behind bars.  Unlike most of the mafia associates I dealt with in New York, I liked Teddy.  He was a straight shooter, he didn’t bullshit, he did what he said he would do, and he was tough as hell.  I enjoyed being around him.   But I always kept in the back of my mind that he was a Persico.  

Eddie "the tall guy" Garafolo

Teddy was not one of my original targets, He was lucky (or unlucky) enough to get his sentence reduced after they changed the drug laws in New York State. My main target was Eddie Garafolo and his Uncle Manny.  Eddie was the son of the Edward Garafolo Sr who Sammy the Bull Had killed so he could take over his business. Teddy fell into the investigation because he was a partner in Eddies Big R trucking. Teddy Persico Jr was the Nephew to the long time Colombo boss Carmine "Gimpy" Persico Aka The Snake.  Teddy was cousin to the Acting boss “Allie Boy” Persico and son of Capo Theodore Persico Sr.  Teddy’s father, Capo Theodore Persico Sr was on the panel that ran the Colombo family.

That kind of pedigree doomed Teddy from birth and made the FBI very interested in what he was up to within the family.  Teddy was living on borrowed time the minute his trip home from prison was planned because Eddie and Teddy's brother Danny "The Town Drunk" Persico put me in charge of the entertainment for his four hour trip home from upstate New York.  The FBI knew that he was going to a meeting as soon as he arrived in Manhattan. Teddy's first stop was at the Bruno Magli store where he was upset that they no longer carried pointed toe dress shoes.

Edward "The Tall Guy" Garafolo was an active associate of the Colombo Family who had done a lot of things for them. He had done some Pump and Dumps on Wall St for the Family and when the indictments came down he was in the wind.  He spent a lot of time in Las Vegas because he loves to gamble.  While there, he hung out at the Crazy Horse Too with Johnny “Greens” Faraci’s son.  Eddie even made it to La Jolla California where he hid out in a luxury beach community.  He came home and was given some house arrest and parole, so he went to work for one of his relatives in the porn business in Brooklyn.  He would also become involved with the same phone business as I would later work with in the city.  Eddie took a large sum out of the business and started Big R trucking, which was named after his son Rocco.  He ran it out of Bonafide Fuel Oil’s truck lot in Downtown Brooklyn.

Eddie once told me that he was living in Florida when he had the worst day of his life.  He got word his father had been gunned down in Brooklyn. Eddie liked to talk and I was there with my wire to get it all on tape.  I used to head out to Big R trucking in Staten Island a couple of times a week to see Eddie after he moved the company there. I would have my devices running and I would capture all those who joined in our conversation. One of the men I would capture was Steve Marcus who was a partner in the trucking business with Eddie, and also a Gambino family associate on record.. Steve Marcus had been friends with Eddie’s father, and had known Eddie for over 30 years.  Because of these conversations with Eddie and Steve, the FBI was also able to tap their phones and do other surveillance on them.  I left Brooklyn in 2005 after I had gotten plenty of tapes on Teddy, Eddie, Steve and Uncle Manny but the FBI did not take down Eddie or Uncle Manny at that time.  They did choose to take down Teddy, his brother and his cousin.  Teddy was becoming increasingly violent and erratic.  Strangely enough, Eddie skated on charges when we were in his truck headed to take care of Craig Marino.  I wondered about how he was able to get away from all I recorded because he was with us when we were in Teddy's mothers house discussing Craig and George who was Craigs lackey. He helped plan the limo ride home for Teddy and he helped his Uncle Manny with stuff in the phone company in the city. The FBI takes its time and they make great cases after they give you enough rope to hang yourself.

You would think that Eddie would have been smart enough to stop for awhile after I left Brooklyn but greed and arrogance has that effect and he kept it up.  When I was in Canada and no longer going back to Brooklyn, Eddie called me and wanted to know where I was staying. Eddie actually told me that he was thinking about taking a ride up there to see me.  How stupid did he think I was?  Eddie was going to drive to Toronto from Brooklyn to see me.  

Next week more on Teddy & Eddie’s demise.